N.Y. Senate control stays cloudy: Brooklyn Democrat will sit with GOP

5:01 PM,
Nov. 16, 2012

Written by

Jon Campbell, Albany Bureau

ALBANY -- A newly elected Democrat's announcement this week that he intends to caucus with Republicans in the state Senate further complicates an already cloudy forecast for who will control the chamber in 2013.

Simcha Felder, a former New York City councilman from Brooklyn, was elected on the Democratic line on Election Day, but hadn't committed to sitting with his party in the tightly contested Senate. In a statement, he said he decided to caucus with the GOP after meeting Tuesday afternoon with current Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County.